Ananth Kumar puts blame on Congress for session’s failure

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar on Friday blamed the Congress party for not allowing Parliament to function during its winter session though the government did its best to placate the opposition.

During the session, the productivity of work done in the Lok Sabha is just 17.39 per cent and that of the Rajya Sabha 20.61 per cent, the minister said.

“It is because of their blindfolded strategy to obstruct the proceedings in both houses that we could not make winter session more fruitful. The session failed mainly because of the Congress and their disjointed leadership in the two houses,” Kumar said.

“As the ruling party, we did everything we could to run the houses smoothly. Be it inside Parliament or outside or in the Speaker’s chamber, we kept persuading them,” he added.

He said that there was no coherence in the Congress’ strategies in the upper and the lower houses, and no coordination between their leaders in the two houses.

“The discussion on demonetisation started in the Rajya Sabha on the very first day of this session. We hoped the same pace would be maintained in the Lok Sabha. But the Congress demanded discussion under adjournment motion, which was not acceptable,” Kumar said.

“Then they clambered down to Rule 184, and then asked for a discussion without a rule and suspending all business and allowing Rahul Gandhi to speak first. Now, when the debate had already started under Rule 193 (short duration discussion), it could not have been suspended,” the minister said.

However, Ananth Kumar said there was “no rancour” between the ruling party and the opposition, including the Congress.

“There is no rancour at all. Had there been a rancour, the Lok Sabha would not have functioned like this today,” he said.

During the session, 10 bills were introduced, all of them in the Lok Sabha.